Pakistani police guard polio workers after killings

Friday

Dec 21, 2012 at 12:01 AMDec 21, 2012 at 12:53 PM

LAHORE, Pakistan - Under police guard, thousands of health workers pressed on with a polio-immunization program yesterday after nine were killed this week across Pakistan by suspected militants who oppose the vaccinations.

LAHORE, Pakistan — Under police guard, thousands of health workers pressed on with a polio-immunization program yesterday after nine were killed this week across Pakistan by suspected militants who oppose the vaccinations.

In Lahore alone, about 6,000 Pakistani health workers were escorted by 3,000 police as they fanned out across the city, said government official Noorul Amin Mengal.

“It would have been an easy thing for us to do to stop the campaign,” he said. “That would have been devastating.”

Pakistan is one of three countries in the world where the disease is endemic. Immunizations were halted in some parts of the country, and the United Nations suspended its field participation everywhere until better security was arranged.

A polio worker died yesterday after being shot in the head in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday. His death raised to nine the number of Pakistanis working on the campaign who have been killed this week.

Saddaf Malik, one of the polio workers in Lahore, said the killings sent a shudder of fear through him and his colleagues.

“We will carry on with our job with determination, but we want the government to adopt measures to ensure the security of polio vaccinators,” he said. The killings occurred as the government and the U.N. began a vaccination drive targeting high-risk areas.

The Taliban have denied responsibility for the shootings. But militants have accused health workers of acting as spies for the United States, alleging that the vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile.

Taliban commanders in Pakistan’s troubled northwestern tribal region said earlier this year that vaccinations can’t go forward until the United States stops drone strikes in the country.

Insurgent opposition to the campaign grew last year after it was revealed that a Pakistani doctor ran a fake vaccination program to help the CIA track down and kill al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden.